Starting my first mead tomorrow

[DrunkenCanuck]

I was reading through my old post yesterday and have assembled what I need to make a basic mead. I am going to get some local apple cider without preservatives in it. Anyway, I have White Lab Mead Yeast, and am picking up 4 pounds of honey tomorrow. The fermenting kit I have is a 2 gallon pail and a 1 gallon bottle, just a basic starter kit with all of the transfer tubes for bottling and moving from one container to the next. Due to the size of the kit that I have, how much of the yeast do I need to use? When is the best time to put in the cider?

 

[rcreamer0713]

I dont know all the details of this recipe. Ill assume ur doing 100% cider or ur using some % of water.

Heat water or half cider on stoce. Disolve ur honey. Put remaining water or cider in fermenter and pour in disolved honey/must. Make sure its about 65degrees and pitch yeast. Boom done.

For ur first mead keep it simple. Use whole pack of yeast. I use full pack of d47 yeast for 1 gallon batches

 

[sportpak]

You're making a basic cyser. A basic mead does not contain juice.
Use the entire pack of yeast. Yeast nutrient up front and then again in 2 days or so will help chew all that sugar up. Good luck.
Someone may recommend some tannins too for balance.

 

[bernardsmith]

No good reason to set the pectins in the cider by heating it. No good reason to heat the cider to help dissolve the honey. If there is a problem with getting the honey to flow more easily simply heat a pot of water and off the heat place the unopened container of honey in it. The heat of the water will make the honey more viscous.
That said, blending apple juice and honey is not a "basic mead". It's a cyser. And so you need to decide what ABV are you looking for and whether you want to make a cider and a mead and blend the two or make a cyser using the apple juice to dissolve the honey. The first way gives you more control over the balance of flavors between the honey and the apples.

 

[bernardsmith]

You're making a basic cyser. A basic mead does not contain juice.
Use the entire pack of yeast. Yeast nutrient up front and then again in 2 days or so will help chew all that sugar up. Good luck.
Someone may recommend some tannins too for balance.

But that may depend on the source of the apple juice. Apples juiced for hard cider are likely to contain far more tannin than apple juice sold to be drunk unfermented. And the juice sold as a soft drink is likely to have more acidity than the juice pressed by orchards for hard cider... The key - IMO - is to taste and not simply add ingredients that are not needed.

 

[rcreamer0713]

No good reason to set the pectins in the cider by heating it. No good reason to heat the cider to help dissolve the honey. If there is a problem with getting the honey to flow more easily simply heat a pot of water and off the heat place the unopened container of honey in it. The heat of the water will make the honey more viscous.
That said, blending apple juice and honey is not a "basic mead". It's a cyser. And so you need to decide what ABV are you looking for and whether you want to make a cider and a mead and blend the two or make a cyser using the apple juice to dissolve the honey. The first way gives you more control over the balance of flavors between the honey and the apples.

I used an organic cider for my apple cyser and it came out great. Even got comoliments kn it over holidays. I warmed a quarter of it on stove to disolve honey.

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

So I guess it isn't just a matter of adding it to the recipe then. Good to know! Thanks for the advice. This is the recipe I am going by, and I think in order to make it simple, I am going to just use honey and the yeast, no extra stuff until I get comfortable with brewing.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basic-mead-201058

 

[brewstarter]

I did my first mead in September, and not sure how to check its ready for bottling. I thought it has to be clear which is isnt, so maybe something's gone wrong?

 

[Maylar]

A hydrometer reading will tell you when it's done, but after this long you can probably assume it is. Some meads take a while to clear.

 

[ForsbergFotos]

I fear I am too late, but all I will add is don't use all the honey. I used 7.5 Lbs in a 2.5 gallon batch and it was too much. Yeast hit their alcohol limit and died out with a SG of 1.058 which left it a bit on the syrupy end. I have added some higher alcohol tolerate yeast and some additional water and luckily it seems to be back in action albeit very slow fermentation.

Any chance that you got an original gravity? Mine was 1.150 putting potential alcohol around 20%

 

[Kent88]

Something isn't adding up. Are you scaling this recipe down? You said 4lbs honey, a 2 gallon pail, and a 1-gallon jug.

If you are scaling it down to 1 gallon, go with 2.5 to 3 pounds of honey and enough liquid to get a little over a gallon. You'll lose some volume when you transfer, as you don't want to bring along the yeast sediment.

What White Labs Mead Yeast? I've used a semi-sweet mead yeast from them that made a good melomel. If you are using their sweet mead yeast I'd recommend you keep the honey at about 2.5lbs/gallon. Also unless you want to wait for at least 6 months use yeast nutrient, search around for "mead staggered nutrient additions" and see what you come up with.

 

[brewstarter]

A hydrometer reading will tell you when it's done, but after this long you can probably assume it is. Some meads take a while to clear.

Thanks for the answer Maylar.

funnily enough a bought a Hydrometer over the weekend (Wilkinsons), but not sure what reading / digit is normally a sign its ready. secondly my Mead still looks like Tea, so I take it its not ready to bottle and drink?

 

[ForsbergFotos]

fermentation is considered complete when the hydrometer reading remains constant over several readings, usually taken over a week's worth of time.

Fermentation being complete doesn't necessarily mean that its ready to bottle and drink. It may taste great at the end of fermentation, but allowing the flavors to meld while aging can yield an amazing beverage

 

[Maylar]

A mead that's still cloudy has yeast in suspension that will affect flavor. It's not like cider where cloudiness can be from pectin haze that doesn't really matter.